The media and public health: complexity, controversy and combat

Interesting responses received from both public health and media colleagues on my recent article.  Some print journalist colleagues took exception to it based on hearing a summary on radio but felt it was more balanced when they actually read the article.  Ironically, some institutional media relations folks wanted to be briefed on the implications of an article suggesting that institutions sometimes seek to over manage the media.

The article was a commentary on Melissa Sweet's very interesting paper:  Learning from journalists’ experiences of the H1N1 pandemic

Newcastle Air and Health Forum - Nov 8th

About 150 people attended the forum.  Community concern related mainly to the proposed coal loader and emissions from Kooragang Island. After the forum concern was raised that there is no monitoring of the extremely small particulates of 1 micron or less.  I made the point at the forum that the smaller particles probably have greater health impact than the larger particles between 2.5 and 10 microns. However, there is little benefit in monitoring for PM1s in the Hunter because we cannot interpret the results from such monitoring - Howard Bridgman made the point it is particularly difficult to even monitor PM1s. The powerpoint presentation is available here